AT&T Plans 55 New Cell Sites for Bay Area

AT&T said Saturday that the company plans to add 55 new cell sites in the San Francisco Bay Area in 2011, increasing coverage on a network users still complain is spotty.

AT&T hasn't yet disclosed which communities would receive the new cell sites, and whether or not they would be full-fledged towers, or the smaller microsites that can be attached to utility poles. In total, AT&T said it would spend more than $200 million to add more cell sites.

The company said it plans to add more details on a community-by-community basis over the coming weeks.

"These cell site improvements are just part of AT&T's overall investment in the Bay Area, as the company is also working on enabling 4G** speeds, enhancing wireless backhaul capacity across the area, enhancing in-building coverage and installing distributed antenna systems to enhance coverage in high-traffic areas like stadiums and event venues, and enhancing its wired broadband and backbone networks," the company said in a statement.

The amount AT&T has committed to its upgrade is about double that the carrier plans to make in Washington D.C. AT&T said it would spend more than $100 million in Washington, D.C. area cell sites this year, including building more than 30 cell sites.

For years, residents of the tech-friendly Bay Area have complained about AT&T's coverage, especially in the hills, valleys, and skyscrapers that dot San Francisco and elsewhere in the Bay Area. According to one study, two-thirds of AT&T iPhone owners paid the early termination fee of $325 minus $10 for every moth a user had been on his or her contract. Arguably, AT&T's perceived lack of quality network coverage was the reason that Apple designed a version of the iPhone 4 for Verizon Wireless.

Moreover, AT&T's version of the iPhone 4 still drops more calls than the Verizon iPhone, according to a recent report.

AT&T representatives did not respond to a request for comment.

Overall, AT&T plans to spend $19 billion in its U.S. wireless and wireline networks and other capital projects in 2011, the company said.

From PC Magazine